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ing in the trees were Någas, Yakşas, Gandharvas, etc., easily approachable without the help of complex sacrificial details. It is the caityas, with udyānas (parks) having caitya-trees in them, that Mahavira is generally reported to have stayed in during his wanderings. People used to sit in worship under such trees and in such moments Buddha and Mahavira obtained elightenment.
Since the Buddha was not represented in human form in early Buddhist worship, the bodhi-tree attained greater importance in Buddhist art, while the Jainas were more or less satisfied with recording of the caitya-trees of different Jinas and giving them only a secondary importance in art. Possibly on account of its age-long existence as an object of worship (not only in India but even amongst other people-cf., for example the tradition of the Christmas-tree), the caitya-tree had to be introduced as a relief sculpture of a Jina, by showing its foliage over his head. The Jainas as well as the Buddhists gave a new meaning to tree-worship. Trees were worshipped, not only because they were haunted by spirits, but also especially because the patriarchs of these faiths obtained enlightenment while meditating under their shades.
That the caitya-tree was given importance due to the ancient and primitive tree-cult of the masses is best illustrated by a type of Tirthankara images from the South where the Jina is shown sitting under a big tree, his figures seated on a platform (pitha) with all other pratihāryas (attendant extraordinary and supernatural objects) either eliminated or very much subdued (cf., figure from Surat and figure from Kalugumalai, Tinnevelly district).
With the evolution of the lañchanas of the different Jinas, the caitya-trees have lost much of their value in identifying images of the Tirthankaras.
Pañca-parameșțhins and Salākā-puruşas
The Tirthankaras (makers or founders of the tirtha) are the supreme objects of veneration, classified as the Devådhidevas by Ācārya Hemacandra in his Abhidhāna-cintamani. Enjoying the same high reverence are the Pañcā-parameşthins or the Five Supreme Ones, namely, the Arhat, the Siddha, the Ācārya, the Upadhyāya and the Sadhu. The first two are liberated souls, but the Arhats are placed first as they are embodied souls, some of whom even found the tirtha (ford) constituted
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